


nothing safe is worth the drive

by 1dhockeyau



Series: but we're bulletproof [1]
Category: BBC Radio 1 RPF, One Direction (Band)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, M/M, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-25
Updated: 2016-02-25
Packaged: 2018-05-23 03:41:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6103666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1dhockeyau/pseuds/1dhockeyau
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick honestly doesn’t know when he became so dependent on this thing with Liam and Louis.</p><p>or,</p><p>Nick is dating two members of One Direction.  One of them has a kid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	nothing safe is worth the drive

**Author's Note:**

> This is set currently and is canon compliant, but the timeline is a bit jumbled and vague. Freddie exists. If that's not your thing probably just ...don't. Also, this isn't betaed. It's just a quick thing I wrote because it was in my head and I haven't written in a while. Please enjoy it anyway.
> 
> I'm pretty sure I've titled like 4 fics from this particular Swifty song but oh well.

When Pig doesn’t pounce at Nick the second he walks through the door on Tuesday, he’s a little worried. Typically, she doesn’t give him a second to breathe before she’s begging to eat or go out for a wee. This either means that she’s finally become the escape artist she believes she is, or she’s into something she shouldn’t be.

Either way, he’s concerned. He drops his bag by the door and his keys on the table and calls for her, but she doesn’t come. He’s not worried but.

“Pig?” He cracks open the bedroom door and sees two things. First, he sees a big lump under the covers, curled up a little and sleeping soundly and second he sees Pig, sleeping happily on top of the lump. His heart skips a little beat and then jumps into his throat. 

He wasn’t expecting Liam back so soon. He goes over to the bed and drops onto his knees. The movement makes Liam shift and then roll onto his back and smile, dazed and sleepy. “Hey.”

Nick breaks into a grin and practically falls on top of Liam, making Pig jump off of Liam and the bed. “Thought you were in LA for a while. Writing, meeting babies, drinking by the beach…”

Liam smiles lazily and pushes his fingers into Nick’s hair. “Lied. Got the Brits tomorrow.”

“Oh so you _are_ going. I thought the whole hiatus thing would be a great excuse to skip it.”

“The Brits are fun.” He grins, just ever so slightly. “And anyway I’m working, just like you. Got to present an award and everything.”

“Heyyy, no fair. You didn’t say.” He grins. “Could have gotten you in for the morning after.”

“You still could.” Liam pauses long enough to dart in for a quick kiss. “If you play your cards right. You could get an exclusive interview.”

“I could.” Nick rests his face in the crook of Liam’s neck and breathes him in. He only saw him a few days ago, but he always misses him when he’s away. And he’s avoiding the big elephant of a question that he really wants to ask. “How’s - “

“He’s good. Freddie’s good. He’s so tiny.” Liam smiles. “Like, tinier than I thought. And he’s just barely even a person, but he’s so much like Louis.”

Nick tries not be jealous. He tries not to be jealous that Liam gets Louis in his face and Liam gets to meet Louis’ son, and Louis is all the way in LA and Nick is here working and unable to take a quick trip to LA and Liam is there all the time.

Liam tugs on his hair. “Stop thinking so loud. Wanna call Lou?”

“Nah. Let him spend time with the little guy. I’ll call him on the weekend.” He hasn’t seen Louis in so long that a couple of days without talking is more of a dull ache than anything real anymore, and besides that they text frequently enough. It’s fine.

Nick is _fine_. He’s not pathetic and terribly sad at all. He has work and Pig and most of the time Liam all to himself, so Louis is fine doing what he needs to do being a dad. He’s happy enough just to hear stories about Freddie spitting upon Louis’ favorite jumper. He doesn’t need to see him or kiss him or hold him at all.

He’s fine.

“I can hear you thinking. Please shut up. Take a nap with me. I had a long flight, and I’m still on LA time.”

Nick doesn’t argue, and he pretends to go right off to sleep while Liam dozes off, dragging his thumb across Nick’s hip back and forth. It’s comforting enough that he almost forgets to think about how much he misses Louis.

+

Nick honestly doesn’t know when he became so dependent on this thing with Liam and Louis.

Last year when he was in LA, they were at Harry’s one night and it just sort of. Nick hates to be the kind of person that says “it just sort of happened” but there doesn’t seem to be another way to put it. They stayed up one night talking after Harry went to bed. Nick couldn’t sleep and Liam and Louis had spent most of the night working on a song, and when Nick wandered downstairs for a drink they were sitting on the sofa, huddled and laughing and they invited Nick to join them.

Well, Liam invited Nick to join them.

Talking turned into listening to some of the boys’ new stuff, and that turned into exchanging numbers when Nick went back home. That turned into texting and texting turned into flirting and then they started hanging out when they all happened to be in the same place. It’s weird to think that Liam and Louis had known each other all those years and nothing had happened between them before they let Nick into their tight knit friendship.

After a few months of texting back and forth it just felt natural to take it to the next level. They knew going in about Briana and the baby, and while Nick was a little freaked out at first, he liked both of them enough that it seemed okay to date someone who was expecting a child with someone else. 

Considering how much time they’ve managed to spend together, everything still feels really really new, despite the fact that they’ve been together for months. Nick’s willing to admit he could have seen Louis more recently than he had if it hadn’t been for his own fears of intruding. But Miami with his friends seemed better than encroaching on Louis’ time with Briana who was dangerously close to giving birth at the time.

So maybe it’s been nearly two months. But Louis is a dad, and they still talk a lot and it’s totally fine. Nick doesn’t miss him that much.

Not really.

And anyway, he has Liam most of the time, and he got Liam on Valentine’s Day, and Skype and texting are definitely the same thing as being in the same room with Louis.

It’s fine.

+

It’s a few hours later when a shrill sound wakes both Nick and Liam up. It takes Nick a minute to realize that his phone is ringing and it’s Louis’ ring tone and also he has about 500 text messages.

“Hello?” He mostly answers to stop the sound but also because it’s Louis. His voice is gravelly and he needs water.

“Finally. Jesus. I texted you both about fifty times. Liam talks about me, but he’s just as bad.” He sucks in a breath. “Hi.”

“Hi.” If Nick closes his eyes it’s almost like Louis is in the room. Almost. “How’s LA? How’s Freddie?”

“Freddie is good, yeah. He’s good.” Louis sounds so happy when he talks about his son, and it’s infectious. Nick can’t wait to meet him. “He’s sort of gurgling a bit I think. Or something like it, anyway. There are sounds. He’s so smart.” Nick can hear him grinning, practically.

“I’m sure he is.” He shifts a little so he can sit up in the bed, but he’s careful not to disturb Liam. “Liam is asleep. That’s why he didn’t answer.”

“What’s your excuse, asshole?”

“Are fathers allowed to say that word?”

“Shut up, Grimshaw. I know where you live.”

“Do you? I was certain you’d have forgotten by now.” Nick plays it off like a joke, but he feels a little pang of sadness and loss. Which is stupid because he hasn’t _lost_ Louis. Louis is still his.

“Shut up.” As soon as Louis says the words (fond and a little annoyed by the sounds of it), the buzzer rings and Nick sighs. Liam shifts in his sleep and makes a little sound. It makes Nick feel warm and fuzzy. He immediately regrets that thought and emotion. 

“Hang on, there’s someone at the door. I’ll need to let them in before Liam wakes up cranky and hungry and realizes I have nothing greasy and disgusting in the flat to eat.” He pads out to the door and realizes he probably looks like a mess. His hair is sticking up everywhere. And also he has a member of One Direction in his bed, which will be sort of hard to explain if it’s someone who isn’t in on the secret, but he decides to cross that bridge if he gets to it. 

It turns out he has nothing to worry about because when he opens the door, it’s Louis standing there. Louis, hanging up his phone, looking jetlagged - tired and smiling just enough that Nick can tell it’s genuine. He stands there, door open, jaw dropped, staring at Louis. “I - You - “

“Yes. Yes, I’m me.” He laughs and pushes Nick’s chin up. “Close your mouth. You look ridiculous. And I don’t just mean your hair.”

“Shut up. My hair looks fantastic.” Nick pulls Louis into the flat and closes the door and focuses on wrapping himself around Louis, tight because he never ever wants to let go. “What the fuck.”

“Well, there are these things called airplanes and sometimes when you want to go home you can get on one and fly there.”

“Shut up. Just stop talking.” Nick hasn’t let go. He feels Louis relax against him and sigh happily as he wraps his own arms around Nick’s neck and presses his face into Nick’s shoulder. For a second Nick thinks Louis must be on his toes but then he realizes that he’s lifted Louis just enough off the ground that he can do that. 

“You’re so ridiculous.” Louis speaks against his skin and he had almost forgotten what that feels like.

“No, you are. You should have told me you were coming.”

“But then I wouldn’t have gotten to see that stupid, amazed look on your face.” He grins. “Come on. I want to wake up Payno.”

He laughs and jumps away, running into the bedroom to poke at Liam until he wakes up.

+

Nick has to actually work later that night because the Elle Style Awards, so he leaves them in bed, as much as it pains him. Especially since he knows that Louis probably won’t be around for long, and seeing as the Brits are tomorrow he won’t actually spend much time with him.

It’s nice to come home to them in his bed though, even if they are already sleeping, cuddled up and warm in his bed, Pig nestled between them (Louis swears she likes him the bed, but that’s an absolute lie). He crawls in with them, knowing he has to be up in a few hours and he missed out on any late night snogging that could have been had, had he not been obligated to work that night.

The next morning he has to leave before they even wake up, and by the time he gets home they’ve both gone out.

Work.

The Brits are _fun_. He loves seeing his friends and watching the mania of it all - the performances and the speeches. It’s all part of why Nick absolutely loves his job. But Liam and Louis are way across the room and Nick can’t touch them. 

They don’t seem to be ashamed to touch each other though, which isn’t surprising, not really, but somehow catches him off guard. He often forgets that they’re _expected_ to be physical with each other. They don’t seem to care that they’re looking at each other like they’re the only things in the world, though, and that part is new.

He has to DJ after, so he doesn’t see them then either, and by the time he gets in to rest before the show they’re both out, naked and happy and sprawled out in his bed asleep. He had expected them to stay out at parties all night, and maybe he could come in and convince at least Liam to come on the show, but Louis is snoring and Liam is curled up and Nick barely has time to change clothes and rest for an hour before he has to be at work.

Straight Through Crew is great, but he wishes he could call in just this once to spend time with his boys.

The show is _rough_ but that’s part of the Post-Brits fun, anyway. People expect a messy show after the Brits and they actually seem to love it. It’s fun, in any case, and it’s even more fun when Louis texts him around 9 to complain about his hangover - and tell him that Liam’s hangover is about fifteen times worse, and his whining is giving Louis a headache. Nick can’t wait to get home to them.

+

When he gets home, exhausted from not sleeping, starting to feel the hangover, and finally coming down from his high from the night before, he collapses into bed. An empty bed, he notices far too late. He sighs softly. He wants to text them but he really doesn’t have the energy, so he just passes out and hopes he doesn’t wake up to an empty flat.

+

He doesn’t. He wakes up to soft whispers on either side of him and the smell of tea and coffee. He hums and rolls into a heavy weight at his side and hears Liam’s laugh, feels Louis’ fingers slip into his hair, and he can’t remember feeling happier in recent months. They carry on talking until Louis’ phone rings and he steps out to answer it.

“Briana,” Liam smiles when Nick looks up, questioning. “She promised she’d give him updates. He’s such a mess.” 

“When is he going back?” Nick doesn’t mean to ask so abruptly, but he wants to know if Louis is going to be here in the morning.

“Don’t know. He talked about setting up his house here for them for a while. Briana seems open to it. I think he might stay.”

“Oh.” Nick feels warm. “He didn’t tell me that.”

“No, I know.” Liam smiles and shifts down, pushing his nose against Nick’s. “I think he doesn’t want to get you excited, in case it falls through. Just - don’t expect him to disappear, not just yet, okay? He’s here for a while.” 

It’s something Nick isn’t used to, someone, or someones, really, being able to read him and call him out on all of the things he doesn’t really talk about. He isn’t sure he likes it, but he’s willing to let it happen as long as he gets to keep these boys in his life.

Louis comes back in. “Sorry about that. It’s weird not having him close is all. I miss him.” He gets back into bed and lies against Nick, tucking himself under Nick’s arm and resting his head on Nick’s chest. “I think you’ll finally get to meet him.” He pauses. “I mean, like, if you want to. I know it’s weird - “

“I want to.” Nick cuts him off and then kisses him. “I really want to.”

“Good, because that would be so weird if I had to just like. Leave and never come over when I had him and stuff. So that’s good.” He slips his hand into Nick’s. “You’ll be the best evil stepfather ever, Nick Grimshaw.”

“Hey! Why am I evil?”

“Well, Liam can’t be an evil stepfather. He’s too nice.” 

It’s weird that Nick doesn’t have a second thought about the ‘stepfather’ bit. This all still seems so new, and it’s not like they’re planning forever but he also tries to imagine his life without Liam and Louis and he just can’t, so maybe it’s not that weird at all.


End file.
